Design activities

Representations

RECIPIENTS

CONTENTS

tool description

The storyboard is a tool derived from the cinematographic tradition; it is the representation of use cases through a series of drawings or pictures, put together in a narrative sequence.
The service storyboard shows the manifestation of every touchpoints and the relationships between them and the user in the creation of the experience.

Related

THE HANDYMAN SHOP

François Jégou, Ezio Manzini (Sustainable everyday project)

The Sustainable everyday project is aimed at the identification of scenarios and solutions showing different visions and hypothesis of more sustainable everyday living.
A storyboard is used to describe each scenario, trying to give the idea of the service in a unique sequence of pictures.
These narratives are built through explicit photomontages: the juxtaposed images are easily recognisable and the orange dividers further help in distinguish the different scenes and spaces, making the storyboards more readable and effective.
The realism of the images combined with the synthesis of the narration allows the reader to get the most relevant aspects of every idea.
The image shown here is a part of a larger storyboard describing the Handyman Shop, a local multi-service centre that combines aspects of neighbourhood convenience store and do-it-yourself shop. For more examples and more information about this concept visit the project website.

SEATTLE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL PROCESS MAP

Xplane

This is an example of an illustrated storyboard used to support the explanation of the process during the staff internal meetings and to support the communication of the service to the final users, explaining how the hospital will take care of him.
In particular this representation describes the complicated and frightening stages surrounding the children surgery: what the family of a child who is being treated at the medical centre will experience.
The representation shows the different steps of the storyboard taking into account their spatial position: we have four steps to arrive to the patient surgery, that is the central point of the experience, and for steps after the surgery.
Each action is illustrated and supported by other two layers of information: one is given by the pictogram, that indicates if it is a moment of wait, a moment of planning or a moment of interaction with the medical staff and the other is given by the text.
“Going through the consulting session with XPLANE allowed us to hone in on the nine critical steps that we wanted to clearly communicate to families at the medical center. We recognize that having a child undergo surgery is a life-altering experience for families and we want to do everything in our power to promote their peace of mind and understanding; we feel this map helps accomplish that goal.”
David Perry, vice president of marketing, Children’s Hospital

THE ARGOS EXPERIENCE

Thinkpublic

Thinkpublic showed an entire service encounter at Argos through a three page comic. This kind of storyboard gives the opportunity to notice some questionable aspects. First of all, the visualization is totally centered on the customer perspective, without giving information about what happens in the back-office. Moreover, the use of this graphic language -similar to a photographic composition- gives such a uniform degree of detail throughout the image that it becomes difficult to focus on the storytelling.

PORTA D'ACCESSO A ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA

DARC, Domus Academy Research & Consulting

DARC developed for Camera di Commercio di Roma a new concept for the improvement of the experience of tourists visiting Rome. The aim of the investigation was the identification of new strategies for accessing the historical and cultural heritage, strategies based on three crucial aspects: the attraction of people towards the less known but interesting areas of the city, the offering of instruments supporting the exploration of the place and the definition of tools for the sedimentation of the experience.
While defining and explaining the concept, some main characters were identified (the methodological, the passionate and the intellectual visitor) and several storyboards were built in relation with them and with the different journeys offered by the new services. The essential graphic language gives the idea through few but effective elements and allows to focus on the devices involved.